Knights golden against Moors

ALHAMBRA - The St. Francis High School baseball team put Alhambra down for the count on Saturday.

Pitcher Ethan Bramschreiber scattered three hits and retired the final 10 batters he faced, and the Knights seemingly were able to count the gaps they hit en route to a 9-1 victory in the Arcadia Elks Tournament championship game at Moor Field.

"We're not a home-run hitting team," St. Francis coach Brian Esquival said. "We've got some big boys, but if we stay within ourselves, let the ball get deep, go the other way, go gap-to-gap, we're going to be fine.

"We're not trying to do too much, just put the ball in play, and good things will come from that. That has to be our motive."

The Knights found the gaps with five doubles and seven singles. Bramschreiber broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning with a double. The Knights scored five runs in the inning.

"We're just going out, looking the other way and looking deep," said A.J. Berglund, who hit a pair of doubles.

"If we go out with a good approach, good things happen. It's a good way to get our momentum going. It's a good way to get the rust off the bat and go right at it."

It's the second consecutive time that the Knights, now 5-0, have won the tournament title.

"We had a lack of getting ahead in the count, a lack of putting guys away; we gave them extra outs, and when we got an advantage in the count, we got out of our hitting plan."

Bramschreiber had minimal trouble. Juan Crespo's triple tied the game in the third inning, but Bramschreiber retired the next 10 batters before being taken out in the seventh inning with the 9-1 lead.

"It was not just me," he said. "It was more of our team. I just put the ball in play. It was more the defense than me."

He struck out two, induced five flyouts and three groundouts.

"He went after people," Esquival said. "He was throwing the ball well. Anytime you get ahead of the count and throw as many strikes as he did, that helps. We played good defense behind him, and that helps a pitcher because he doesn't have to go out there and strike out everybody."

Starting Alhambra pitcher Gary Acuna and reliever Frankie Wright got behind in the count, and the Knights waited for the better pitches.

"He wasn't doing a lot, just throwing strikes," Alhambra shortstop Vailele Peko said. "We just couldn't jump on them. We were hitting the ball hard, but hitting them in spots they were in."

Peko kept the Moors in the game for a while. The shortstop made a great relay throw to the catcher to get Mark Saatzer at the plate trying to score on Berglund's first- inning double. Peko also made several big catches and throws to keep the game from getting out of hand early on.